Dancers duel before the presidential debate on ‘Dancing With The Stars’

SAN DIEGO, September 26, 2016 – Both Ryan Lochte and Rick Perry survived the first week elimination on “Dancing With The Stars,” with young Disney star Jake Austin going home instead. This was a direct result of lack of fan votes making the difference over the judges’ scores to determine the elimination. Have we convinced you of the need to vote?

Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke avoided elimination last week on “Dancing With The Stars.” ABC/Eric McCandless

While another type of “Get Out The Vote” takes center stage Monday night with the first presidential debate airing on ABC, “Dancing With The Stars” will step aside early to make room. Monday night’s show will only be one hour long from 8 to 9 p.m. in all time zones, with the debate starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. Sorry West Coast, you lose out on ballroom time.

The competition will work a little differently this week because of the one hour show. Two couples will both dance the same dance style to different songs. After each couple dances, they will get their judges’ scores. Whichever couple scores the highest from each pair will be immune from elimination on Tuesday night. The other couple will automatically be in jeopardy.

At the end of the show, the six low scoring couples will need fan votes to help them avoid leaving on Tuesday night. Any votes for a couple who already has immunity will wasted this week. Only the six couples in jeopardy need your votes, so fans will need to pay attention to the results at the end of the one-hour show. If ABC has its act together, it will restrict votes to the six couples in jeopardy, but don’t count on it.

Terra Jole and Sasha Farber bewitched the ballroom with their Foxtrot in Week 2. ABC/Eric McCandless

Don’t let your favorite couple down this week, vote to save one of the six in jeopardy. ABC/Eric McCandless

Voting information: For week three, viewers may cast their votes for only the six couples in jeopardy via phone on Monday night during the show and up to one hour after the end of the DWTS broadcast in each time zone. Online voting at www.ABC.com and on Facebook at https://apps.facebook.com/votedwts/ is open for 24 hours, beginning from the start of each episode on the East Coast at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and closing at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Tuesday evenings.

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR, is President/Owner of the Falcon Valley Group in San Diego, California. She is also a serious boxing fan covering the Sweet Science for Communities. Read more Media Migraine in Communities Digital News. Follow Gayle on Facebook and on Twitter @PRProSanDiego. Gayle can be reached via Google +

Please credit “Gayle Falkenthal for Communities Digital News” when quoting from or linking to this story.

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, MS, APR, is President of the Falcon Valley Group, a San Diego based communications consulting firm. Falkenthal is a veteran award-winning broadcast and print journalist, editor, producer, talk host and commentator. She is an instructor at National University in San Diego, and previously taught in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University.